False analogies
From Captain H. Holmes (Retd) Sir: Sir Michael Howard's ideas of what happened in 1914 expressed in his letter (22 September) are totally at variance with mine. There had been an arms build-up by Germany since the beginning of the century in response to the dominance of the British empire, while the Roman Catholic AustroHungarian empire was at loggerheads with Greek Orthodox Russia over the domination of the Balkans. Bosnia was AustroHungarian, and Gavrilo Princip, Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassin at Sarajevo, was a Bosnian. The supposed plot by its adjacent state and chief enemy in the Balkans. Serbia, was strongly denied. Despite mediation by Britain's foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, the Austro-Hungarians pressed on with a war against Serbia, which of course brought in Russia. Germany came in on the Austro-Hungarian side, and declared war on both France and Russia on 3 August. Britain was brought in the next day under our treaty obligations to Belgium, which had been invaded by the Germans.
The present EU conquest of the Balkans is, in my view, a repeat exercise, except that this time it was initiated by the KLA, which, it has been said, was organised by the German secret service in support of the invading Albanians.
H. Holmes
I3asildon, Essex
Previous page
